At the table: women’s participation and influence in Ireland’s first decade of deliberative-democratic innovation

Since the We the Citizens project of 2011, Ireland has begun to establish itself as a world leader in the use of national deliberative fora for considering policy change. In many ways, it marks a radical departure from the tightly-controlled, executive-dominated parliamentary politics of Dáil Éireann. Thus far, innovative deliberative processes have had a direct influence on two hugely transformative moral/social referendums: the marriage equality referendum of 2015 (recommended by the 2013–14 Convention on the Constitution) and the abortion referendum of 2018 (recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly in 2017). With the extensive recommendations of the recent Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality, there may yet be more deliberation-led social transformation to come. This paper considers the involvement and influence of women in Ireland’s deliberative processes and their contribution to the country’s ongoing social transformation. Particular attention is paid to the much greater descriptive representation offered by these sortition-formed assemblies compared to Ireland’s electoral bodies, and their record of delivering ‘woman-friendly’ outcomes is assessed. Consideration is also given to the possibility that these processes may resolve some of the tension between descriptive and substantive representation through women’s direct participation in deliberative decision-making.